Tag Archives: Del Norte Redwoods

This week has brought some really good news for California state parks, and it’s only Thursday! Here’s a little recap, some resource links, and a general prediction of what good news lies ahead.

Tuesday

On Tuesday Gov. Brown signed AB 42. This was a huge accomplishment, and this bill certainly traveled a long and winding road. Some of you may recall visiting your legislators in the capitol to tell them about this bill way back in March. Well thankfully your hard work, and the work of those who signed petitions, sent letters and made phone calls, paid off! Thank you guys for supporting this bill all the way through.

So what does it mean to have this bill in place now? (Maybe you even want to read the bill, which you can do here.) It means we have new options for keeping state parks open. Now, instead of asking, “Can you provide money to keep this park open?” we can ask questions like, “Can your nonprofit run the campsites in this park?” or “Can your nonprofit operate this ENTIRE park?” The pool of resources just got a whole lot bigger, which is exciting.

Thursday

Earlier today, more good news came through the wire. California State Parks announced in a release that three of the state parks on the closure list are going to remain open thanks to the National Parks Service (NPS). Operations of Tomales Bay, Samuel P. Taylor, Del Norte Redwoods will now be supported by NPS. If you know these parks, you know this is a great partnership because of the close proximity of these state parks to national park land. We are very happy to see NPS continue its long history of working closely with California State Parks and step up once again to take care of these parks that are such an integral part of those areas.

Tomorrow?

After a week like this it seems right to feel optimistic. As they say, things always come in threes, so I think there’s more good news to come. Maybe that’s a little superstitious, but I’m still hoping for a hat trick of good state parks news this week!

And if not tomorrow, we can be sure that soon enough there will be news of nonprofits stepping up to help state parks, thanks to the authority they will now have from AB 42. Onward!

Who do you predict will be the next organization to step up on behalf of a state park they care about?